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Whether you join TWI as an individual through our Professional Membership, or your company joins us as an Industrial Member, being part of TWI grants access to a package of benefits unavailable anywhere else.

By becoming a member you will open a door to a unique combination of expertise, facilities and support. You will be joining more than 2000 Industrial Members and 5000 Professional Members, including many of world’s biggest and most successful companies.

Providing solutions and adding value

TWI is one of the world’s foremost independent research and technology organisations, with expertise in solving problems in all aspects of manufacturing, fabrication and whole-life integrity management technologies.

TWI’s patented VitoNano technology is key to a number of new coating-based projects for the renewable energy and aerospace industries. Over £3.5 million of combined UK and EU funding is being used by Opus Materials Technologies to develop a portfolio of market-ready coatings for use in three projects over the next two years.

The projects include: • Icemart - the development of an ice-repellent coating for aeroplanes, maritime vessels, powerlines and wind turbines, which is designed to remove the need for ice to be manually removed using costly machinery or products.• Solar Sharc® - a durable self-clean coating designed for solar modules, designed to prevent the surface build up of dust, sand, salt, and ash on solar panels.• Always Clean – Rolling out of the Solar Sharc® self-clean coating solar modules in locations with adverse environmental conditions.

Alongside these projects, which have key funding from Innovate UK and Horizon 2020, comes the upcoming full launch of the Sharc Matter® website (www.Sharcmatter.com), which will see TWI’s VitoNano Technology made available for purchase. This ecommerce platform will allow silica nanoparticles to be functionalised with one or more chemical groups, thus allowing users to create materials for their bespoke requirements including uses such as improved abrasion resistance, improved repellence, improved solvent resistance, improved barrier properties, enhanced stiffness, and increased heat distortion temperatures.

The Icemart, Always Clean, and Solar Sharc® projects are being rolled out over the next 24 months, with the Sharc Matter® platform set to launch in early 2018.